Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says his department will continue to reject some asylum seekers who arrive by boat without hearing their cases or allowing them to see a lawyer to discover their rights.

It comes after refugee advocates said they would begin mounting High Court challenges to the legality of the process, called "screening out".

The practice has led to untold numbers of mostly Sri Lankan asylum seekers being dispatched home, to an uncertain fate in a country still grappling with state-sanctioned violence, intimidation and discrimination, which fuelled the bitter civil war that ended only three years ago.

On Wednesday, the Government agreed in the High Court to reconsider the asylum claims of 56 Tamil men due to be deported to Sri Lanka this week.

The climb down happened in the face of mounting opposition to the policy of screening out asylum seekers.

"I do believe that the Government has a right to test that people are genuine," she said.

"But I think there needs to be a legal procedure set in law, and a law that goes through the scrutiny of Parliament and then if it's decided that's the correct law, of legal steps and rights that are protected for the asylum seeker."

Ms Byers said the policy whereby asylum seekers were not informed of their rights must be abandoned.

"People should be advised. No one should be interviewed by ambush, told that they have to make out a case against criteria that they haven't been advised on," she said.

"So when the minister says they are all economic refugees, they didn't raise any protection visa claims is, because they don't know what it is they're being assessed against.

"So if they're not advised of what the criteria is, we want to see if you're persecuted for any of those five reasons, then they're setting them up to fail."

Ms Byers says the Government's decision to reconsider the claims of the 56 Tamil men does not resolve concerns surrounding the policy.

"It's just going to leave each person to go individually to court to challenge it," she said.

"And by the time that they go through all these procedures, the Sri Lankans - they are able to return quickly - but other nationalities they're not, so they're screened out and they're left indefinitely in detention.

"I had one client... screened out for 16 months."

Refugee advocates have demanded the Federal Government open its asylum claims process to independent scrutiny by appointing a body to oversee the process of expelling asylum seekers.

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